Open Access self-archiving

The secondary publication (or self-archiving) of publications in subject-specific or institutional Open Access repositories is referred to as Green Open Access. A secondary publication may be carried out in several repositories concurrently. In contrast to academic networks such as ResearchGate, repositories are non-commercial and can be used by anyone without identification, and their documents are integrated in numerous databases.

Before self-archiving a paper or book, the author(s) must check which version of the publication (pre-print, post-print, publisher´s version) can be used. Self-archiving a publication immediately after the first publication is usually not permitted by the publisher. However, in some disciplines such as physics, it is common for the author's manuscript (pre-print) to be published in repositories even before the version of record is published.

The conditions and embargo period of a secondary publication depend on the publishing contract. According to the Austrian Copyright Law (§ 37a), authors have the right to deposit their research articles one year after their publication on a non-profit server (repository). However, this only applies if Austrian law is applicable. In all other cases, in order to avoid legal problems, the publisher's policy should be followed.

Further information on Open Access self-archiving